You have been planning the ideal winter vacation months. The flights to Vancouver are already made, Whistler ski lift tickets are bought and your hotel room, with its view to mountains, is being booked. You stuff your bags, move to Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport and board the plane enthusiastically. However, when you first step in Canada, it is only a nightmare even before you step out of the airport. When you give your passport to a customs officer, you are looking forward to getting a stamp and getting a warm welcome. Rather, the officer keyboards in whatever into his or her computer, frowns and orders you to vacate the premises to undergo secondary screening. Hours of interrogation and waiting in a sterile room get you the bad news, you are criminally inadmissible to Canada. You are refused access and sent to the next plane headed back to Atlanta all due to the DUI charge that happened in the past three years, which you believed you was over with.
Such a situation is not a fear gimmick, but a real-life story of hundreds of Americans. Although the majority of the population is aware of the fact that DUI conviction is followed by fines, probation and a possible suspension of the license, not many realize that it may become a sentence of the global ban on travelling. One of the most developed data-sharing agreements is between the United States and Canada. Border agents of Canada are connected to the FBI national crime information center database. They can check your complete criminal record, on which you were arrested without conviction or a reduced charge of reckless driving, when they scan your passport. In case of any DUI in your history, you will be flagged.
This strong enforcement is due to the fact that the various nations define drunk driving in varied ways. In Georgia, first time DUI is a misdemeanor. It is considered a grave traffic crime, and not always a serious crime that is indicative of profound immorality. But the Canadian law takes it quite differently. By December 2018, Canada had revamped its impaired driving legislation, and DUI became a serious offense of criminality. The criminal law in their jurisdiction has made a DUI a felony punishable by up to ten years of imprisonment. This is to say that when attempting to cross the border you are not perceived as a tourist with a traffic ticket; you are perceived by the Canadian immigration officials as an extremely hardcore felon, being placed on par with a person convicted of a major violent offense.
This inadmissibility does not time out fast. Most of the residents of Atlanta are mistaken when they assume that after the expiry of their probation period and after the fines are paid they can practice free traveling. This is false. As a rule, you are not allowed to go into Canada within a ten-year period following your full term sentence, not only the conviction date. Ten years later, it is not a guarantee to get entry. The procedure of beating this prohibition is agonizing to those who require traveling to conduct business or other pressing issues in the family. You can also seek a Temporary Resident Permit (TRP) but they are hard to get, must have a genuine purpose in traveling, other than just tourism and they are accompanied by hefty processing costs by the government. The other option, Criminal Rehabilitation is a permanent pardon but a lengthy one to process.
Although Canada is the worst violator of these regulations, it is not the only nation where a DUI can ruin your plans. Laws on the books of Mexico as well permit the border agents to refuse entry to anyone who bears a pending criminal charge or a serious criminal conviction. Although this enforcement may be lacking in Mexican resort airports, as opposed to the searching that is done at Canadian airports, the threat is there. How does it feel to plan out a honeymoon in Cancun and be denied entry at the gate. As the world security databases are increasingly more interconnected, it is expected that even more countries will implement tougher entry standards on criminal travelers.
This harsh collateral damage explains why it is crucial to fight a DUI charge. It is not only about keeping out of jail on a weekend but it is about keeping your freedom to go about in the world. Such high stakes do not permit you to trust a general practitioner who may tell you to just offer a plea of guilty and go. You must have an Atlanta DUI Attorney who is aware of the ripple effect of a conviction across the globe. It is at this point that James Yeargan stands out amongst the crowd. DUI Jim, James Yeargan, realizes that his clients are, most of the time, professionals such as pilots, consultants, executives, whose work and lifestyle require them to be able to move freely.
James Yeargan and his team of Yeargan and Kert think about the long game when approaching every case. As a former DUI prosecutor James Yeargan is well acquainted with how the state constitutes its case, but what is more important is the fact that he is also thoroughly acquainted with how to unravel it to avoid the type of convictions that lead to travel bans. He is aware that a discussion down to a typical reckless driving misdemeanor could save your license in Georgia, yet this would still become a problem at the Canadian border when mismanaged. His company struggles to have charges dismissed or minimized into non-alcohol related crimes that will not carry the brand of serious criminality in foreign countries.
The staff of Yeargan and Kert legal firm is devoted specifically to the defense of DUI. They are not divided into their work; they work daily in the trenches of DUI law. This specialization implies that they know all too well the undercover consequences of a DUI, e.g. inadmissible travel status. By you employing James Yeargan, you are employing a fighter that is protecting your future, and how a Friday night in Buckhead turns into a life of limited movement.
When you are charged with DUI, you simply cannot put in your mind the next month in court. Consider a vacation that you would like to take next year or business trip you have to make five years down the line. A conviction is an anchor and can keep you firm forever. Get in touch with James Yeargan and senior lawyers of Yeargan and Kert.
